Tones

Mark Schleske

5-18-11

Per. 2

Tones

A big factor in my life is music. It’s everything I stand for, and more. So many people list music as their raison d’être, and for different reasons. It’s the definition of influential. So, as much as I appreciate originality, it’s time for me to go with the flow. I suppose when something is so essential to your character, you can’t afford to let the opinions or actions of others change you negatively. More and more it is a part of me, and life would be much harder without it. Music is one of my passions, and I believe that the world would be a better place if we all shared those things that ignite us. It’s always genuinely interesting to hear someone talk about their fascination.

I can’t say when my personality changed beyond the point of no return. Perhaps, with luck, I have not yet fully developed my musical appreciation. What I can state is the first time I started playing music. In the 5^th grade, at Fairmount Elementary, we proudly retained an amazing music teacher who instilled in us a greater respect for our instruments. She was the one who helped us play our first individual notes. It was like opening up some new form of life, a different way of living. For some of us, it was our first experience with life itself.

Practicing, for me, has always been difficult. I didn’t enjoy hearing myself play alone, and, in my defense, the violin is not the most forgiving of instruments. This might sound like a trivial hardship, but it brought about some of the lowest mental conditions of my life. After 6^th grade, I moved onto middle school, where I stopped playing in an orchestra. I still took private lessons, so I hadn’t quit the art entirely, and I joined the school orchestra for 8^th grade. The violin is the first instrument I ever learned, and I have stuck with it ever since. There’s some quality in the tone of stringed instruments that I find fascinating and unique, and I hope to keep with it as long as possible.

During my sophomore year of high school, my sister found a deal on a studio style piano that she could not resist. And as I passed that piano day after day, I naturally began to gravitate near the keys. Both my sister and I were self-taught, and it wasn’t long before we had built up our respective repertoires of pieces. In hindsight, it probably would have been better for me to start on piano, as most people do. Few things I have experienced are as rewarding or as satisfying as taking a new song and conquering it. Piano is really where I hit my stride, and it took my veneration of the musical world to a new level. Suddenly it was like I could hear everything, and I was able to follow it wherever it lead me. Life turned out to be so much easier than I had originally thought.

This is where I become slightly (more) ethereal and frivolous. There’s an entire world symbiotically linked with ours. It’s in the air, surrounding us; cohabitating, if you will. Some people know it, some don’t. But the ones who do tend to see a brighter world, full of possibility and life. My journey here has only started, but I have great expectations.